One Year Later: Reflecting on Cursed Child

It has now been exactly one year since the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script book hit the shelves. This is one of those momentous days, much like the recent ten-year anniversary of Deathly Hallows, where fans everywhere sit back and reminisce on where they were and what they were doing this time last year. For most, it was a midnight release party of some sort the night before. For others, it was running to the nearest bookstore the minute it opened. For everyone, it was a weekend of nostalgia and a resurgence of affection for the boy who lived.

Now, we could talk about characterization and story issues in Cursed Child until we’re all blue in the face (and many of us have), but these are not what I want to focus on in this moment of reflection. I want to look back and think on what it meant to be a Harry Potter fan on this day, and on the familiar anticipatory buzz in the air that surrounded Cursed Child’s release. For that buzz, that crackling energy in the air during the hours leading up to any new Harry Potter story, is unlike anything I have ever experienced, and very likely ever will experience again, in the book world.

Because this is the first question everyone was asking as soon as the reality of the script book set in: Will there be midnight release parties? These gatherings were the quintessential moments of fandom in the days of the series release. Games and costumes and endless speculating, all while waiting for that clock to strike midnight, for that special brand of Rowling magic to be pressed into our shaking hands. Would we get that again with Cursed Child? So, here’s my Cursed Child midnight release story:

I spent my youth, like so many others, growing up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. By the time Deathly Hallows was released, I was the exact same age as our trio of heroes. I always attended midnight book release parties at the same bookstore. My local, independent bookshop. I don’t need to describe the excitement and energy present in the air during those times. We all felt it. We can all recall it at a moment’s notice. Fast forward nine years to the spring of 2016. I am now working at that very same local independent bookshop as the Children’s Book Buyer. It’s my day off when Cursed Child hits the news. Shock. The beginnings of that crackling energy. And the instant reality sets in? A text to my friend, the store’s Events Coordinator, with the appropriate amount of explanation points and the words: “Midnight release???” So you see, there was never a question about the return of the midnight release party.

And ultimately, I suppose the midnight release party is really what this reflection is all about. You see, I was so enormously busy planning the Cursed Child release party (reminder: at the very same store I attended release parties at all those years ago) that I don’t think the enormity of the moment really sank in unless I gave myself a moment to stop and just feel it. But that was okay. I would never trade those months of planning for the experience of just attending the party. I felt I was watching myself go in a cycle, first attending the releases and then next thing I knew planning them.

As for the party itself, my very good friend and I were on the planning committee:

And you guys, we had everything. We had butterbeer, wandmaking, sorting, face painting, a photo booth, trivia, and John Williams music soaring majestically throughout the store. Decorations everywhere, costumes everywhere. We even had our own resident Sibyll Trelawney giving out spectacularly terrifying predictions:

When midnight rolled around, I even got to hold the books over the counter for eagerly awaiting hands that so reminded me of my own. For me, that is what the whole evening was leading up to. The joy on every face, attendees finding a corner to hunker down in and open the book right away because they just couldn't hold out long enough to get home first. This experience is what Harry Potter inspires. This is why Cursed Child was such a monumental moment for lovers of the wizarding world. When we all attended the release party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it was the end. That was it. It was done. It was joyous and it was devastating and it was everything in between. Nine years passed between then and Harry’s birthday last year, and it was as if the fandom never missed a beat. Fans who still loved Harry but sort of let him fall on the wayside as new things came along sprang back into action. Those who carefully coaxed that eternal flame of love all these years as the news lessened and lessened were instantly ready as if they knew the day would come.  I know for many, Cursed Child was even the first midnight release they ever had the opportunity to attend. And after it was all over, I took my very own copy home to crack open myself.

So you see, Harry’s world holds a special (and rather spacious) place in the hearts of everyone in the Potter community. No matter how you feel about “the eighth story” itself, and I have plenty that I could say, there is no denying the resurgence we all felt at its announcement. The awe-inspiring experience of an entire community of fans waiting in the woodwork, just watching for the opportunity to jump back into the fray as one. This is the exhilaration of being a Harry Potter fan. This is the magic. And for that experience exactly one year ago from today, I will always say thank you, from the bottom of my fangirl heart, to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Finally, a very happy Birthday to both Harry and the one and only J.K. Rowling!